Sunday, March 04, 2012

Ah haz spoken!

I've just given my talk at the Moving Secularism Forward conference - the talk for which I actually came all the way to the US. It seemed to go well at my end, though I am the last person to judge the quality of the performance! (I now await the searching, sceptical reviews on the internet.)

I put the case that there is a philosophically principled basis for secular government, and that much of it can be found back in the work of John Locke, though it needs to be updated and adapted to twenty-first-century circumstances. Even many (perhaps most) religious people can understand and accept this case, though they may not be willing to follow it all to its logical conclusion.

I'll be speaking on the same topic at CFI headquarters in Amherst (Buffalo), NY, next Friday night. Meanwhile, I will be talking next week on rather different issues (largely bioethical ones) at Yale and at Trinity College, Hartford.

Looking forward to tonight's conference banquet! Must check what I am missing this afternoon on the conference program (needed a beer or two after my talk, so I am afraid I am probably missing something important and wonderful, dammit).